Travis Roy
On Oct. 20, 1995, BU raised its fourth national championship banner as it opened a new season, yet just moments later the program suffered its greatest on-ice tragedy. On that night Travis Roy, a freshman recruit who grew up in Maine, was paralyzed from the neck down just eleven seconds into his first college shift. The 20-year-old Roy crashed head-first into the boards after a University of North Dakota player, Mitch Vig, avoided his check. Roy cracked his fourth vertebra and was left a quadriplegic.
Roy missed a year of college, but ultimately returned to BU, earning a degree in communications in 2000. Roy has remained a presence with the BU hockey program, attending games and on several occasions joining his teammates on the ice to celebrate Beanpot championships. Roy, today a motivational speaker, has become an inspirational figure for sufferers of spinal cord injuries. In 1997 he founded the Travis Roy Foundation to raise money for research and individual grants, and in 1998 he published an autobiography titled Eleven Seconds. Roy remains close with Coach Jack Parker.
"It's very special to be a part of the BU hockey family," Roy wrote in a new afterword in the 2005 edition of his autobiography. "Coach Parker looks after his players long after they have played their last game for him."
In October 1999, Roy's #24 was retired, and raised to the rafters of Walter Brown Arena. Roy is the only BU hockey player to have been honored with a retired number.
Read more about this topic: Boston University Terriers Men's Ice Hockey
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